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Answer
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The adoption of the United States' Clean Water Act was partially in response to the 1969 burning of what Ohio river, whose industrial pollution has led it to catch fire at least 14 times throughout its history?
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Cuyahoga
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What name is shared by a northern Bolivian department and an eastern DR Congo city located on the edge of the Ituri Forest? It also precedes Mellal in the name of a regional Moroccan capital.
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Beni
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Thompson in the South Atlantic, Bermeja in the Gulf of Mexico, and Brasil west of Ireland are examples of what "supernatural" type of charted landmasses that appeared on maps for centuries but were later discovered not to exist?
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Phantom islands
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The desert known as Rub' al Khali in Arabic is considered the world's largest continuous sand desert, and is better known in English by what other name?
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Empty Quarter
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Comoé, Taï, and Banco National Parks are located in what country that is also home to the Ébrié and Aby lagoon systems?
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Ivory Coast / Côte d'Ivoire
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Sněžka, the highest point in the Czech Republic, lies in what mountain range, itself part of the greater Sudetes mountain system?
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Giant Mountains / Krkonoše
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What capital of Uruguay's Río Negro Department, on the Argentine border, is perhaps best known internationally due to its meat processing industry? A British brand of tinned puff pastry topped meat pies and puddings is named for this town.
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Fray Bentos
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Svan towers are medieval defensive tower houses built between the 9th and 12th centuries, with most of them being centered around the towns of Mestia and Ushguli in which country?
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Georgia
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Similar in appearance to Dubai's Burj Al Arab, the Spinnaker Tower is an observation tower located in what coastal town's Gunwharf Quays?
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Portsmouth
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The current flags of Oregon, Transnistria (officially), and Raleigh, North Carolina, share a vexillological peculiarity with only one UN-recognized sovereign state in the world. What is that country?
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Paraguay
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Mezzogiorno is the Italian term for the southern part of Italy, comprising the regions south of Rome. Giving its name to a waterway connecting Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea, what is the French equivalent of the Mezzogiorno?
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Midi
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What capital of Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon is home to the historic Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, which still treats tropical diseases to this day and remains an important healthcare provider in the region?
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Lambaréné
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What Tamil Nadu pilgrimage town is located at the southernmost tip of mainland India, where the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal meet? Home to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar Statue, this city offers stunning sunrise and sunset views.
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Kanyakumari
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Rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan, what river located at the North Korea-Russia-China tripoint has been crossed for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the Chinese border into Jilin Province?
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Tumen
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The world’s longest sea-crossing fixed link connects the cities of Hong Kong and Macau with what mainland Chinese city located on the west bank of the Pearl River estuary?
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Zhuhai
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Also called Lesser Wallachia, what geographical area and historical province in southern Romania has Craiova as its largest city? Its name is derived from a Danube tributary that is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania.
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Oltenia
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In February 2018, the Strengthening of Regionalization Law was enacted in which country? It removed the requirement to use Roman numerals to designate the country's administrative regions.
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Chile
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Due to decommunization laws, which Ukrainian city was officially renamed Kropyvnytskyi in 2016? This previous appellation honored Sergei, an early Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination was used as a pretext for starting the Great Purge.
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Kirovohrad
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What is the only Russian republic to be fully enclaved by another federal subject? The most common demonym for inhabitants of this republic is used by Circassian people to refer to themselves.
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Adygea
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What river flows through the Belgian cities of Ghent and Antwerp? It was also the site of the short-lived Kettle War, where a Dutch vessel fired a shot that hit a soup kettle on an Austrian merchant ship, which prompted the Austrian ship to immediately surrender.
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Scheldt
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What Cambodian city's rapid and poorly planned transformation into a gambling mecca has led to it become a "ghost town" of abandoned buildings? This formerly quiet seaside town has since turned into a hub for organized crime and scam centers.
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Sihanoukville
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What city on the western bank of the Dniester River is internationally recognized as part of Moldova, but has been under the de facto control of Transnistria? An alcoholic and misanthropic fictional character voiced by John DiMaggio was not named after this town.
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Bender
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The capital city of the Itza Maya kingdom, Nojpéten, was located on an island in Lake Petén Itzá. What town, a popular tourist gateway to Mayan ruins such as Tikal and Yaxha, sits today on the ruins of Nojpetén?
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Flores
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Riding camels and sandboarding are popular activities practiced at the Sand Dunes named for what Japanese prefecture? This area boasts Japan's largest coastal dune system.
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Tottori
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Name either the largest Mongolian lake by surface area, or the largest Mongolian freshwater lake by volume. The latter's nickname is the "Little Sister of Lake Baikal".
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Lake Uvs and Lake Khövsgöl
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What second largest city of Cape Verde, located on the island of São Vicente, is considered the country's cultural capital? It is known for its annual carnival as well as being the birthplace of singer Cesária Évora, who popularized the morna style of music.
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Mindelo
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What term, distinct from a skete, refers to any large Orthodox monastery consisting of a cluster of cells for hermits arranged around a church? A monastery of this kind was a "Great" one on Mount Athos, with other notable ones found in Sergiyev Posad and Kyiv.
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Lavra / Laura
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The Dhivehi language, which is written in the Arabic-derived Thaana script, is better known worldwide by what exonym? (i.e. name the language)
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Maldivian
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Sokh and Vorukh are ethnic exclaves located within what large fertile depression sandwiched between the Tian Shan mountains and the Gissar-Alay mountain systems?
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Fergana Valley
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What de facto administrative capital of South Korea was established in order to reduce overcrowding in Seoul and to balance regional development? Although several government offices have since relocated to this new purpose-built city, Seoul remains the constitutional capital of the country.
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Sejong City
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What semi-arid biome in northeastern Brazil is characterized by thorny and succulent vegetation that appears pale white during the long dry season? Covering around 10% of the country, this biome found only in Brazil is home to thousands of endemic species.
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Caatinga
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One of the least visited national parks in the United States is what remote 8.4 million acre wilderness area that features the central section of the rugged Brooks Range? It is the second-largest national park by area and the northernmost in the country.
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Gates of the Arctic
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What smallest province of Equatorial Guinea was named by the Portuguese for the date of its discovery, on New Year's Day in 1473? Most of its inhabitants speak a creole form of Portuguese known locally as Fa d'Ambu.
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Annobón
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The Pico do Papagaio and the Pão de Açúcar respectively flank the eastern and western tip of what body of water, whose name comes from the Tupi for "sea-like bay" or "lagoon of the sea"?
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Guanabara Bay
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Excluding maritime borders, what is the only national capital whose city limits border two other sovereign states?
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Bratislava
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While Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain call their administrative subdivisions muhafazat in Arabic, Algeria and Tunisia use a different Arabic term for their provinces and governorates. What is that term?
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Wilaya
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The titular structure in Ivo Andrić's masterpiece "The Bridge on the Drina" is the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge, located in what Bosnian town? It is etymologically cognate with a Hungarian royal town lending its name to a Central European alliance known as the V4.
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Višegrad
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What six-letter singular term refers to any urban Dutch canal consisting of a waterway bordered by streets and houses on both sides? It is distinct from other types of Dutch canals such as a singel, a kanaal, or a vaart.
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Gracht
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The Bund, People's Square, Nanjing Road, and the car-free Xintiandi district are all located within what Shanghai district, the city's primary political, commercial, and cultural hub? It is also the name of the river dividing Shanghai into two banks, Puxi and Pudong.
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Huangpu
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The Cascade, a massive limestone stairway divided into 572 steps and five main terraces, is a modernist architectural complex located in what world capital?
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Yerevan
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What village in Washington State, a year-round tourist destination known for its quaint Bavarian architecture, shares its name with a Kansas town home to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, the U.S. military's only maximum-security facility?
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Leavenworth
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What word may be found in the name of the largest of the three waterfalls that collectively form Niagara Falls, and in the name of the conurbation centered around Toronto that stretches north to Georgian Bay and south to Lake Erie?
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Horseshoe
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Located in Colombia and Venezuela, what arid peninsula forms the northernmost tip of South America? This peninsula is the ancestral home of the Wayuu people, perhaps best known for their weaving traditions that include their colorful mochila shoulder bags.
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Guajira
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The name "Punjab" originates from the Persian words panj ("five") and āb ("water" or "river") and thus means "The Land of Five Waters". Please provide the name of any one of those five rivers, all of which are tributaries of the Indus.
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Jhelum / Chenab / Ravi / Sutlej / Beas
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Although Panaji is the capital, what is the largest city of India's Goa State? It was named in honor of a historical figure who held the title of Count of Vidigueira and whose greatest achievement was celebrated in the epic poem Os Lusíadas.
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Vasco da Gama
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What capital of Shefa Province is the largest town located on the island of Efate (an island also known as Vate or historically as Sandwich Island)?
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Port Vila
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What Svalbard Soviet town was abandoned in 1998 following the collapse of the USSR and the closure of its coal mining operations? Since 2007, it has been transformed into an open-air museum, with the former Tulipan Hotel renovated to house visitors.
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Pyramiden
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The oldest continuously operated canal system in North America is what waterway connecting Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario? During winter, it transforms into the world's largest skating rink.
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Rideau Canal
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What word derived from the Old English "iggath" refers to the long and narrow islands formed by sedimentation commonly found on the River Thames and its tributaries in England?
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Ait / Eyot
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A renowned family of Estonian conductors whose members include Neeme, Paavo, and Kristjan has a surname that serves as a very common geographical suffix in Finland. What is that surname, from the Finnish for "lake"?
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Järvi
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Also known as a village or a barrio, what is the smallest administrative, political, and planning unit in the Philippines? This term originally referred to a type of traditional Filipino boat considered the oldest watercraft in Southeast Asia.
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Barangay
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Named after a modern King of Egypt, which town sits across the Suez Canal from the city of Port Said?
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Port Fuad
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What Syrian city is known for its series of 17 historic wooden waterwheels located along the Orontes? These waterwheels, called norias, were used to lift water from rivers into aqueducts for irrigation and domestic water supply.
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Hama
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The Chambeshi River, considered the source of the Congo River, feeds what wetland system in northern Zambia? This system comprises an eponymous lake popular with wildlife observers, as it is home to the shoebill stork and herds of black lechwes.
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Bangweulu wetlands
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What former royal capital at the foot of Mount Lovćen still houses important buildings today including the Blue Palace, the official residence of the President of Montenegro, and the monastery that serves as the seat of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro?
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Cetinje
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The cultural heartland of the Dogon people (as well as the Tellem and Toloy peoples) is centered around what 150-km-long sandstone cliff located in Mali's Mopti Region?
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Bandiagara Escarpment
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The largest tributary of the Niger River is what stream that flows through the cities of Jimeta, Makurdi, and Lokoja? Makurdi also serves as the capital of a state named after this river.
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Benue
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What mountain range in southwestern Cambodia takes its name from a spice of the genus Elettaria that grows abundantly throughout the region's humid forests?
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Cardamom Mountains
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Closely associated with the company Debswana, what specifically are Orapa, Letlhakane, Jwaneng, and Damtshaa? (Two words required)
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Diamond mines
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What adjective characterizes cities, especially those in the ex-USSR, that were quarantined for research and military purposes? An example is Baikonur, with non-resident visitors needing prior approval to visit both the town itself and the Cosmodrome.
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Closed
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An Old Norse-derived word for a small rocky island too small for human habitation lends its name (in its plural form) to a coastal fishing community in County Dublin known for its Martello towers and sandy beaches. Name either the town or the word in the question.
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Sker / Skerries
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While an oblate spheroid (or Earth ellipsoid) is the term used to refer to the idealized shaped of the Earth, what other shape refers to the Earth’s surface if it were entirely covered by water, influenced only by gravity and rotation?
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Geoid
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Since the 19th century, the Old City of Jerusalem has been divided into the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and what fourth quarter? This southwestern quarter hosts the 12th-century St. James Cathedral and is home to a diaspora with its own Patriarchate.
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Armenian Quarter
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The highest volcano on Earth above sea level is what highest peak in Chile? This stratovolcano also features a crater lake on its eastern side which, at 6,390 meters, is currently recognized as the highest of its kind in the world.
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Ojos del Salado
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What 9th-century temple complex in Central Java is the largest Hindu site in Indonesia? Dedicated to the Trimurti, it features intricate stone reliefs depicting the Ramayana epic and its design incorporates mandala temple plan arrangements.
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Prambanan
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What island and nature reserve off the coast of Fremantle is most renowned for its quokka population? After taking selfies with the cute marsupials, other activities to do including snorkeling, swimming in The Basin, and visiting the Bathurst Lighthouse.
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Rottnest / Wadjemup
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Not to be confused with a similarly-named subregion of the Pacific or a meringue-based treat, what term refers to the collection of four volcanic archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde) off the coasts of Europe and Africa?
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Macaronesia
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Which railway tunnel, inaugurated in 2016 and recognized as both the longest and deepest in the world, has shortened the average travel time between Zurich and Milan by one hour?
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Gotthard Base Tunnel
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Roman praetorian guards sent by Nero to locate the source of the Nile were stopped by what impassable swamp in South Sudan whose name has now come to mean any thick floating mats of vegetation that prevent navigation?
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Sudd
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Lending its name to the main official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, what is the highest of the seven hills of Rome?
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Quirinal Hill
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